Camp Cooking Help Needed

[barlowrs]

Hey guys/gals, I hope this thread doesn’t make me sound like a complete idiot, but I need some help. I am just getting into the "expedition" thing, as I have finally got a rig capable of taking me places :smiley_drive:, however, one of the biggest snags I am hitting is camp cooking.

All my life my camping experience has either been 1 day trips (quick hunting trips), or multi-day rock climbing/mountaineering trips. The problem is, the quick hunting trips allowed me to take any food I want (just has to stay cold until the evening when I cook it), and cook with campfire. While, for the climbing trips, when you are hanging on a portaledge, you are using a TINY single burner stove to boil water for the lightest pack of instant noodles you could find, if you are even cooking. More often than not, I would just eat cliff bars during the whole trip.

And this leads me to my problem. I now have a truck taking me places, so I can afford the weight of a dual burner stove and more food options. Unfortunately, I DO NOT have a fridge in my truck yet. So, while I have more cooking options, I still cannot think of good things to cook since I have no fridge.

So, for those of you that do NOT have a fridge, what do you take and cook when you are out camping on multi-day trips? Obviously, I cannot take perishable items, so once again, all I can think of is instant things like noodles, mac and cheese, etc. There has to be better options though right?

THANKS!:chef:

 

[Corey]

Check into some of the dehydrated food available at REI and other stores.
I took some on a camping trip a few summers back even though I have an ARB fridge.

It has comes a long ways, and actually tastes pretty good.

 

[Desert Dan]

Bring an ice chest and eat the most perishable food first.

Sometimes I'll freeze steaks and other food so it acts as ice and eat it on day 2 or 3.

Often our last day will be non perishable food.

 

[rcintx]

I am in a similar situation. No fridge, but with my truck for multiple days. This is my setup:

I have an igloo max cold cooler that will hold ice (in 100 degree heat) for 5 days. On the bottom of this I put beverages, water bottles, and the likes. Then a layer of ice 3 or 4 inches deep. On top of that I use the square foil pans you can find at walmart, etc. I put all of my food into gallon zip log bags, and then in these pans. Then clear lid and more ice. Keeps water from the food, and everything nice and cold.

As long as I empty the melted ice through the drain a couple of times a day, I will be good for 3 days in the summer, much longer in the winter. Hope this helps.

 

[bat]

Cooler can go a long time if you can keep from opening it all the time, seperate drinks from food in a smaller cooler. I have had a max cold below 40 degrees in baja for 4 day's.

 

[Regcabguy]

After driving all day,I've come up with a easy first night's meal: package of tostada shells,can of refrieds,bag of salad to be used later too,bag of shredded cheese and little can of Herdez salsa fresca. Heat up the beans in a pot and heat the tostadas in a non-skillet pan. Put it all together and you have a nourishing hot meal in maybe twenty minutes. I precook ground beef,freeze it in ziplocks and place it on the ice. I'll add it to spaghetti along with canned pasta sauce(which has improved immensely in recent years). Zuchinni,bell peppers,garlic and onions last a long time in a cool place. Cabbage does real well without refrigeration also. Precooked beef,pork or chicken lasts for quite awhile and is safer than bring the raw version using a cooler. I have a small chest freezer in the garage that I use to make custom large blocks for my cooler. This keeps us out of the 3-way fridge in the popup. Hope this helps. Ya gotta eat well out there!:sombrero:

 

[elmo_4_vt]

Simple answer, Ice chest. We can go for on long weekend trips and be fine with just our cooler. Just like above, get a "5-day" cooler. Those will keep ice for a good 3-4 days in most conditions. Also, the last stop we make before getting away from civilization will be for an extra bag or two of ice, just to maximize the amount we have on site. We have a large one, and we'll put most things in frozen to help out. During most trips, the food is one of the big highlights. It's very routine to have some thick fillets, chicken, shrimp, eggs, mayonnaise, etc.

Another trick is to put frozen gallon jugs in the cooler. Those will stay frozen a little longer, and the water won't get to food. On the last couple of days you can use the water too.

I'll have to try the trick with the foil pans, never thought of that.

-

 

[Dennis David]

Pasta and lots of soup. Fish and eat what you catch.

 

[1leglance]

You will be best served by getting 2 small ice chest rather than 1 large...
because you will be in & out of the beverage one more freq so keep that seperate from the food one.

Also if you take pasta, sauce in a can/jar and summer sausage you have a great no cooler req meal for the last day.
Another is a couple of cans of chilli & a cornbread mix that only needs water, dump in the chilli into the dutch oven, pour the mix on top and bake it done...no cooler req.
There are lots of foil pack chicken dishes and canned soups that would work.
I was a backpacker for years and if you go on those forums you will find lots of ideas...just tweak for less worry about weight.



Freeze or precool everything before it goes into the coolers.
Keep them out of the sun.

 

[SunTzuNephew]

You will be best served by getting 2 small ice chest rather than 1 large...
because you will be in & out of the beverage one more freq so keep that seperate from the food one.

Also if you take pasta, sauce in a can/jar and summer sausage you have a great no cooler req meal for the last day.
Another is a couple of cans of chilli & a cornbread mix that only needs water, dump in the chilli into the dutch oven, pour the mix on top and bake it done...no cooler req.
There are lots of foil pack chicken dishes and canned soups that would work.
I was a backpacker for years and if you go on those forums you will find lots of ideas...just tweak for less worry about weight.



Freeze or precool everything before it goes into the coolers.
Keep them out of the sun.

+1.

We have a couple of ice chests, the smaller (kind of medium, actually) has the daily use stuff and the food for that day. The larger one (which ever we have - we have one big enough for my wife to sleep in ) is for future meals, with blocks (not cubes) of ice, and we open it only once or twice a day to keep it cold. We also keep the ice chests out of the sun, insulated as well as possible, and drain the water (which helps the ice melt) frequently.

The various reusable plastic containers (rubbermaid, glad, etc) can be filled with liquid-ish foods (pasta sauce, chili, etc) and frozen, they then serve as ice blocks as well.

And once in a while we'll foil-cook a dinner: Steak or hamburger, cut up potato, corn on the cob, maybe a slice of onion, wrapped in heavy-duty foil and then double wrapped, with double-folded seams. Toss on wood fire, let it cook, the foil is the serving/eating container. These can be pre-frozen as well.

 

[mdsarge]

Great advice and if you can spend some money, if you don't already have one and get a shrink/kryo vac machine. I have one from cabella's. It'll will give normal meats after kryoing them and putting them into the fridge up to 7 days of fridge life. I buy in bulk, do my own cutting, be it burgers, steaks, pork loins package and freeze, elliminating freezer burn. I plan my meals for the camping trip, eating the most perishable first and working my way down the list. Like mentioned all my packacged meats, vegatables, etc are frozen and packed in ice, ellliminating anyworry about leakage and stays colder twice the time since you are adding them frozen to the cooler...hope this helps

 

[timmer2008]

you can try putting a ice chest inside an ice chest and using dry ice in the inner one and wet ice in the outer one. make sure you dont latch the inner one as you will want it to vent some.

 

[Joanne]

You have received a lot of good information so far. The fridges are really nice but not mandatory for good trail eating.

- Make sure that you pre-cool all of your food before putting it into your cooler (especially canned drinks).

- Freeze meats and let them help keep the cooler cool. Eat the meat later in the trip.

- A Foodsaver is a great way to pre-package raw meat so it doesn't contaminate the ice water that will be in your cooler.

- Consider precooking some meals before leaving on the trip. Soups or stews work well for this. Use the foodsaver!

- Buy a bottle of good spaghetti sauce. Add some pre-cooked hamburger & sausage (from the step above) and heat. With a side salad, it's a nice meal.

- Learn how to cook in Dutch Ovens (where you ask? www.camp-cook.com for a shameless plug)

We eat amazing meals when we are out camping. Nothing like the smell of fresh baked bread when you are out in the middle of nowhere!

Joanne

 

[rusty_tlc]

The two ice chest method will keep meat frozen for three days in the desert.
I prefer block to cube ice. We use the square juice bottles to freeze our own. This keeps everything dry except for a little condensation. It is also an emergency supply of water for you or your truck.


For a non-perishable meal try linguine and canned clam sauce. Or make your own sauce with a can of clams, olive oil, garlic and dried parsley.

 

[barlowrs]

Thanks for the input guys! I had thought about the ice chest idea, but I was worried, as my current ice chest barely keeps my drinks cold through a full track day at willow springs (granted we open it a LOT).

I will go pick up a better ice chest (or two) and use that...:chef: